A Debilitating Return
by seek-to-enchant121584
Summary: A spin on the tryptophan seizure plot line. Instead of Alec coming to Max's aid, the roles are reversed. See Max's slightly softer side as Alec discovers, the hard way, that he also has a tryptophan deficiency. Max/Alec one-shot.


Author's note: In this story, I'm stretching the Dark Angel reality fabric to give Alec a tryptophan deficiency. Since so much was left unexplained with the abrupt ending of the show, I figured I have some leeway. So, I hope you enjoy. For a few reasons, this story takes place before the showdown season finale ("Freak Nation"). I was picturing right before it, as I wrote this.

Music suggestions: 'Back home' by Cold.

Disclaimer: Don't own Dark Angel.

A Debilitating Return

Searching for her favorite jacket in the living room area of the apartment OC shared with Max, OC muttered something dark and unintelligible when the phone began to ring, interrupting her train of thought.

Snatching the cordless phone off the charger, OC depressed the 'talk' button and brought it up to her ear. "Hel-lo." OC answered sharply.

"M-max?" Alec stuttered into the phone, shaking so hard he could barely force the simple, single word past his lips.

"Just a minute, suga'." OC replied, frowning at the phone for a moment before cupping her hand over the bottom and calling out for Max. "Max! Yo' boy Alec on the phone. I think."

"He ain't my boy. And what do you mean by "_you think"_?" Max responded, poking her head out of the bathroom, flat iron in hand.

"I mean that somethin' wrong. He don't sound right." OC clarified, holding out the phone with an impatient expression.

Huffing impudently, Max laid her flat iron on the bathroom counter and crossed the room. Taking the phone out of OC's outstretched hands, Max cocked her hip to one side and brought the phone up to her ear.

"Go for Max." Max said into the phone, examining her nails on her free hand.

"M-m-max?" Alec forced out again, the seizure seeming to intensify as he'd waited.

Max sobered immediately, standing up straight and clutching the phone tightly to her ear. "Alec? What's wrong? Where are you?"

"Tri-trip-tro-o..." Alec stuttered, unable to complete the multi-syllable word.

"Tryptophan deficiency?" Max asked, catching on. Her tone was no-nonsense as she asked her next question. "You at home having an attack?"

"Yes." Alec replied in a weak tone, the seizure temporarily subsiding. "Max? Hurry. Please."

"I'm on my way." Max answered in a clipped tone, already in the bathroom and plucking her emergency supply of tryptophan from the medicine cabinet. "You'll be okay."

oozoooooooo*ooowoooooo*

When Max arrived at Alec's front door, her warning instincts went on high alert at the sight of his front door already open. Further inspection found that the door had been left ajar, with no sign of forced entry. Inching slowly into the apartment, Max scanned the front room before turning to lock the door behind her.

Holding the bag containing a small jug of milk and the tryptophan tablets in one hand, Max crept down the short hallway towards Alec's bedroom on silent feet.

"Alec?" Max called out in a cautious tone as she reached the bedroom door.

"H-h-here." Alec forced out in a quiet voice from inside the room.

Turning the corner, Max choked back the wave of sympathy that crashed against her at the sight of Alec curled up in the center of his bed, shaking uncontrollably. She'd seen Alec shot, stabbed, and beaten all to hell...hell she'd seen him at his emotionally weakest, confessing his mistakes at a dying Rachel's bedside.

But this...she'd never before seen him like this. At his most vulnerable, unable to control his own body. Having been there herself on countless occasions, she could relate.

"Oh, Alec." Max uttered, no trace of snark in her tone as she crossed the room to sit down at the edge of his bed.

"I-I kn-know...b-b-been there, d-done t-that...r-r-right?" Alec stuttered out, clenching his hands against his chest with his gaze focused intently on the opposite wall, as if extreme concentration was the solution to his current dilemma.

Max, having finished setting the small jug of milk and bottle of pills on his bedside table, turned and reached out, brushing his hair off of his sweaty, damp forehead.

"Happens to a lot of X's. Not your fault." Max stated sympathetically, matter-of-factly. "Happens to me. A lot." Max admitted quietly. Retracting her hand, Max scooped up the bottle of pills and shook a couple out into the palm of her hand. Unscrewing the lid on the milk, Max faced Alec again. "Now let's try and get these tryptophan pills inside you, alright?"

Nodding, Alec rolled onto his back. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to lift himself up, Max put an arm around his shoulders and hauled him up. Small tremors continued to quake his body as Max held him up. Holding the pills in her hand, she brought them up before his mouth and shook her hand.

"Open up." Max commanded with a gentle smile.

At her request, Alec opened his mouth long enough for Max to toss the two tablets in.

"Don't chew them!" Max commanded urgently when his mouth closed and he started convulsing again. Bringing up the milk in a lightening fast move, she pressed the rim to his lips and tipped it up.

Able to hold still long enough to drink, as if the tremors obeyed her orders just as well as the rest of his body did, Alec swallowed the pills and mouthful of milk.

"Good boy." Max praised him in a slightly teasing tone.

A weak smile pulled at the corners of his lips as Max lowered him back down.

"Those should start kicking in any minute. Take another two or three in about an hour, and it'll be like it never happened." Max explained, her tone light.

"M-max?" Alec asked as she moved to stand up. He hesitated when she glanced back down at him. "S-stay w-w-with me?"

The stark vulnerability in his tone rooted her to the spot. Even more so, the reluctance she knew he'd felt at not only asking for her help, but admitting further weakness in asking her to stay until it was over. She knew because she'd been there, too. So even though she'd planned to meet up with OC and the rest of their crew at Crash after getting Alec squared away, Max didn't hesitate.

"Sure. And don't worry. I've got your back." Max replied in a reassuring tone, a small smile accompanying the sentiment.

oooomoooo*ooouoooooo*

Standing up to stretch her legs, the bed having stopped shaking for the moment, Max shrugged off her jacket and tossed it on the floor. Rotating back around to check on Alec, she took in his appearance for the first time.

He was still fully dressed: jacket, boots, everything. That explained why his door had been left ajar. Most likely, he'd been on his way out when the first seizure had struck him. Considering how it usually snuck up on a person without any warning, you had a zero chance of preparing for one. And for someone like Alec, who'd probably been provided a monthly or yearly treatment for the condition, stood at an even greater disadvantage, perhaps not even aware he'd had the deficiency.

That he'd called _her_ for help..._trusting_ her, spoke a lot about how much they'd both grown. They still fought at pretty much every opportune moment, but it lacked the conviction it'd once had. The more she glimpsed behind his shielded personality, the more she began to trust him as well. It untwisted and smoothed out another section of the tangled, jumbled mess her heart had become.

"How's about we get these boots and jacket off, make you a little more comfortable." Max suggested, squeezing his forearm to get his attention.

"C-c-old." Alec said in way of reply, his response faint.

"Happens sometimes." Max supplied in explanation with a worried frown. Once in a while, when the tremors hit her really bad, she would wrap herself up in as many blankets as she could scrounge up, freezing her ass off. In the middle of June. Probably something to do with the body taking energy away from less necessary functions, such as regulating body temperature, to combat the tryptophan imbalance. She didn't understand the science behind it, just knew that it made you even more miserable than you already were.

Leaning down, Max unzipped and tugged off each of his boots, tossing them to the floor beside the bed. Encountering little resistance, Max also tugged the leather jacket down his shoulders and arms until it came free from his body as well. Giving the jacket slightly better treatment, she folded the jacket and carefully placed it on the floor next to hers. She then sat down and kicked her boots off as well.

Might as well make herself comfortable as well.

Max's heart tugged in her chest when she turned back around. Alec had curled into an even tighter ball, another seizure wracking his body in conjunction with the chill he felt.

In her past experience, the tryptophan tablets should have kicked in by now. Nearly fifteen minutes had passed since she'd introduced them into his system. He should have started showing a minute sign of improvement.

Of course, she hadn't exactly factored in his larger body mass or the fact that his deficiency could be worse off than hers.

Reaching for the tryptophan bottle, Max unscrewed the cap and dropped another three pills into her hand. Grabbing the milk, Max didn't even bother trying to get him into an upright position.

Waiting until the worst of the seizure had passed, Max turned his head towards her and forced the tablets past his lips and poured enough milk into his mouth to wash the pills down. As soon as he swallowed the pills, Alec curled back into his previous position on his side. Setting the milk aside, and pulling his comforter up over him from the end of the bed, Max then did something she thought she'd never willingly do.

She laid down and curled her body around Alec's. Laying her head on her left arm, Max wrapped her right around Alec's torso and pressed in close, protectively.

It was in this close setting that Alec admitted something else to Max, something that unlocked another safeguarded wall that surrounded Max's heart. Walls that had gone up the moment she'd discovered his betrayal in helping her escape Manticore.

"S-scared, Max." Alec mumbled in an almost inaudible tone.

Max clenched her hand around his tightly fisted ones and absently pressed a soft kiss to the nape of his neck, right over the shadowy markings of his barcode returning. After this was all over, they'd both need to head in for a touch-up laser treatment.

"Don't be." Max commanded fiercely. "I'm right here. You're not alone. I'll get you through this. Promise."

ooozooooo*ooovooooo*oooonooo

Max startled into wakefulness, unaware that she had fallen asleep. Looking around, she noticed that the weak light coming through Alec's shaded bedroom window indicated another overcast Seattle day.

"Did I wake you up? I was trying to be quiet." Alec questioned in a hushed tone, standing before his closet with a shirt in his hand, looking over his shoulder at Max.

"No. At least, I don't think so." Max replied, frowning slightly in thought as she tried to shake the last traces of sleep from her head. "What time is it?"

"Little after five." Alec said, turning back to the closet. He selected a charcoal grey pair of cargo pants before crossing the room to a cluttered dresser. He yanked open one of the drawers, grabbed a pair of boxer briefs and socks, before resetting the drawer to its closed position. "I was just going to take a shower. I've got some food in the fridge if you wanna grab something before you leave."

"Cool. Thanks." Max said in response. Rolling onto her back, Max stretched her arms over her head before tucking her hands under her head. If he wanted to go ahead and pretend nothing had happened the night before, that was cool with her. It made the fact that she'd spent the night in his bed, curled up around him, not nearly so awkward.

Walking towards the bedroom door, Alec paused just before the threshold. "Max?"

"Yeah?" Max asked in reply, looking over at him.

"Thanks." Alec said in a quiet tone. He then reluctantly turned his head enough to meet her gaze. "Thanks for staying. You didn't have to."

An awkward, but soft smile appeared on Max's lips, the action unfamiliar when directed at Alec. After sitting up and placing her hands in her lap, she nodded her head in response.

"I know how it feels. Having someone there makes it easier somehow." Max added with a shrug.

"Yeah...I guess it did." Alec replied, one corner of his mouth quirking up uncomfortably. His expression then shifted into something closer to his usual teasing smirk. "I'm glad it was you. Because now I get to tell everyone at Jam Pony how we finally slept together last night."

"Alec." Max growled out in a warning tone, taking one of the pillows from the head of the bed.

"What?" Alec asked innocently with a shrug. "Technically, we did."

Max tossed the pillow at Alec.

"Watch it, Max. I might get the wrong idea." Alec grumbled in an amused tone after dodging the pillow, drawing the door shut behind him.

Max rolled her eyes, an amused smile of her own tugging at her lips.

Maybe he wasn't so bad, after all.

oooowoooo*ooooooaooo*

Just a random idea that popped into my head after rewatching season 2 of Dark Angel on DVD. I hope you liked it.


End file.
